Fairy Bond

Chapter One: I guess I'll go cliff diving

Autumn's P.O.V.

My mom runs in the room, locking the door behind her. There is a bruise on her face. Her head is bleeding.

"Hide," she whispers. I pull the muscles of my face together and tilt my head to the side. I don't like it when I see her hurt. I reach out my tiny hand.

"What happened mommy?" I ask, still reaching for her bruise. She grabs my hand before I can't touch her face. Her fingers feel like popsicles, "Hide!" Her voice is louder. The color from her face drained.

I jump off the bed, stick a wobbly landing, and then scurry to the laundry basket. No more questions asked. Once inside my mother covers me with more clothes. I am completely invisible. It probably just looks like we haven't done laundry in a while. Darkness surrounds me. I can feel my eyelashes touch the shirt that is over my head when I blink. I don't fully understand what is going on around me but my muscles are tense. Loud banging on the door causes me to flinch.

"Open up!" The croaky voice commands. I don't hear the door open but I hear my mom shuffle around, then everything goes silent. I make a small hole and see my mom hiding under the bed. She locks eyes with me and puts her finger to her lips.

Suddenly the door breaks open. Falling with a loud thud to the floor. I squeeze my eyes as tight as I can. My heart feels like it's about to explode its beating so fast. My mother's scream pierces my ears but I am too afraid to even think about opening them. Eventually I find courage and look through the same hole as earlier. I can't make out much. Only the silhouettes of two big men are visible. They are carrying my mom, one by the arms the other has her feet. She isn't fighting anymore. That only means two things. She is unconscious or worse, dead.

Something wet falls on the back of my hand. I touch my fingertips to my cheek. It's completely moist. I didn't even realize I was crying. I don't move. I stay inside the basket until it feels like the minutes are merging to hours. I find calmness in the silence.

Someone else enters. I put my hand on my heart. I know this won't stop it from racing in my chest, but I still find comfort in the idea. I go into a full blown panic when two giant hands lift me out of the basket.

My eyes shoot open and I sit upright in my bed. I have this nightmare so often that I don't even scream when I wake up anymore. I'm in a light sweat and so breathless; it feels like I just sprinted a mile. My reoccurring nightmare feels more like a memory than a dream. My father says it's only a figment of my imagination. Something made up by a four-year old who couldn't cope with being abandoned by her mother.

My eye catches the time on the clock, 05:53. Seven minutes left before it starts blaring in my ear. I move the empty glass away from the edge, bringing the only picture I have of my mom, into view.

I don't look at it often, because I see enough of her when I look in the mirror. Lacing my fingers together, I lift up my head and land it on my hands. You'd think by now that there'd be a hole in my ceiling by the way I stare at it.

I shut off my alarm and allow my brain to wonder off to everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

A knock on the door disrupts my train of thought.

"You up yet?" My father's muffled voice travels though the big chunk of wood.

"Barely," I hit him back.

Today is the first day of school and I don't want to go. Mostly because I am your average teenager who is lazy and I just don't like school in general - I mean what is the point of cramming a bunch of facts and random information in your head that you're never gonna use later on in life, unless you're one of those nerds studying to be a teacher; then I can't help you - but also because my father made me train throughout the summer vacation and I didn't really have some time to myself. I'm starting to think that Ace and Sally, my best friends, won't recognize me anymore. I'm slimmer than I was, with more lean muscles. My face is thinner, making my cheekbones pop more. I barely recognize me.